In the US your routing number and account number are printed on the bottom every check you write - its how the bank knows it s legitimate check. So every time you hand someone, anyone, a check you are giving them your routing number and account number.

This is why I quit writing checks to anyone except people I personally know. I've had my checking account hacked multiple times. As soon as I hand my check over, I'm giving anyone who has access to that check all the information they need to create checks that have my account & routing information on them.

They then can write checks on my account. As I say, it's happened to me multiple times. They can write several checks before the bank catches it. The bank always covered the fraudulent checks and reimbursed me for the amounts but it's still a huge pain and can affect your ability to write checks to businesses who have your name on a fraud list.

Back in the olden days when I used to write checks everywhere, it was really bad. Now I just use my credit card to pay for everything. I actually write a check about five or six times a year now.

Slartibartfast's posts are a very good description of my city, too. We have a not-too-terrible bus system in the city, almost none in the residential areas. The bus stop nearest my home is about 3 miles (4.8 km) away. And my area gets foul weather - blizzards in the winter, tornadoes in the spring, life-threatening heat in the summer. The last thing you need is to walk to school or work then, hours later, be stranded by foul weather.

In my state liability insurance, which pays for the damage to the car or building you hit, is mandatory. Collision insurance, which pays for damage to your car, is optional by law but may be required by your lender. I typically keep collision insurance on my car until its about 10 years old. At that point the premiums are more than the potential payout.

JoW, I think you may live near where I do. At least in the same geographical area. Spring means tornadoes and floods (and road construction), summer is lethal heat (and road construction), fall is either more storms or early blizzards (and road construction), and winter is sleet, ice, freezing weather, and just difficulty in getting around. At least there's no road construction.

As to the banking issue, I've actually had someone get a check of mine (I wrote it for a legitimate purpose) and they signed me up for "extra insurance protection" without my knowledge, took out something like $30 every month for over a year. I couldn't use online banking at that point and all of my statements were going to my parents' house. (I was in college, the university firewall really hated that bank's systems, and I didn't want to have to go in to get new checks every year when I changed dorm rooms, so I left my parents' address listed and they couldn't send the statements anywhere else.) The bank could only refund so much money, I think it was limited to two month's worth of charges, simply because it had been going on for so long and I hadn't said anything before that.

In much of the US, there is often no safe way where a person can walk from business to business even if they didn't mind the greater distances involved here. The area between or around larger stores stores or strip plazas is generally surrounded by a large moat of parking lot where it may not be very safe to walk due to lack of visibility, distracted drivers, and other factors. The intersections leading to such places are even less safe for crossing on foot.

Where I live in Texas, there is really no way to walk from the bank to the grocery store to a place for a quick snack and then to buy shoes like I remember doing in Germany. It's a very rare downtown area that has more than office buildings, courthouses, and the occasional restaurant that is only open during weekday lunches. Even then, downtown is only there for the nightlife, not for general daytime errands.

To do the same set of errands I could walk to in Germany after a short bus ride, one will end up having to get in and out of the car four times and drive a few miles between the places rather than walking a few minutes between each stop. Throw some kids into the mix, it's even less fun. Make it over 100 degrees outside where your car turns into a blast furnace in ten minutes or less during each errand, and it becomes downright miserable.

If you're like me and can't drive, you get to enjoy the pleasure of dodging cars in the 100+ temperatures under blazing sunlight that obstructs both your vision and the drivers' vision around you while walking at least a quarter mile between stores (if you're lucky enough to find a strip center that has more than one business that you need to visit there). You also get to alarm those working in stores when you carry your shopping from your previous errand with you, since they will often assume you're shoplifting since you're bringing in a shopping bag with you. I totally get why people buy coffee at drive throughs. This place just isn't designed for people - it's designed for cars. Seriously, for most of us in the US, the notion of wondering what you'd say if you saw someone walking down the street is not something you'd literally consider. What you'd say seeing them in the grocery store, sure. But no one walks down the street here unless their car broke down.

In much of the US, there is often no safe way where a person can walk from business to business even if they didn't mind the greater distances involved here. The area between or around larger stores stores or strip plazas is generally surrounded by a large moat of parking lot where it may not be very safe to walk due to lack of visibility, distracted drivers, and other factors. The intersections leading to such places are even less safe for crossing on foot.

Where I live in Texas, there is really no way to walk from the bank to the grocery store to a place for a quick snack and then to buy shoes like I remember doing in Germany. It's a very rare downtown area that has more than office buildings, courthouses, and the occasional restaurant that is only open during weekday lunches. Even then, downtown is only there for the nightlife, not for general daytime errands.

To do the same set of errands I could walk to in Germany after a short bus ride, one will end up having to get in and out of the car four times and drive a few miles between the places rather than walking a few minutes between each stop. Throw some kids into the mix, it's even less fun. Make it over 100 degrees outside where your car turns into a blast furnace in ten minutes or less during each errand, and it becomes downright miserable.

If you're like me and can't drive, you get to enjoy the pleasure of dodging cars in the 100+ temperatures under blazing sunlight that obstructs both your vision and the drivers' vision around you while walking at least a quarter mile between stores (if you're lucky enough to find a strip center that has more than one business that you need to visit there). You also get to alarm those working in stores when you carry your shopping from your previous errand with you, since they will often assume you're shoplifting since you're bringing in a shopping bag with you. I totally get why people buy coffee at drive throughs. This place just isn't designed for people - it's designed for cars. Seriously, for most of us in the US, the notion of wondering what you'd say if you saw someone walking down the street is not something you'd literally consider. What you'd say seeing them in the grocery store, sure. But no one walks down the street here unless their car broke down.

Regarding the bold section: It is sometimes a challenge if you want to walk somewhere.

My library is near the historic area and within a nice 5 minute walk to the Episcopal church, which is open during the day. I've been trying to take my lunch time and walk over and have quiet time in the garden or church. Getting to and from has been the biggest challenge. Staff and patrons stop and ask if I need a ride. I reassured the library staff that I have my phone and will call if I need help. My nice "stress free walk" often turns into a social fest because surely I'm not purposely walking in a neighborhood where I don't live.

On the other end, my neighborhood had only one road in and is popular with fitness walkers from multiple neighborhoods. This is a common site and I just have to remember to watch for walkers on my way to work.

In much of the US, there is often no safe way where a person can walk from business to business even if they didn't mind the greater distances involved here. The area between or around larger stores stores or strip plazas is generally surrounded by a large moat of parking lot where it may not be very safe to walk due to lack of visibility, distracted drivers, and other factors. The intersections leading to such places are even less safe for crossing on foot.

Where I live in Texas, there is really no way to walk from the bank to the grocery store to a place for a quick snack and then to buy shoes like I remember doing in Germany. It's a very rare downtown area that has more than office buildings, courthouses, and the occasional restaurant that is only open during weekday lunches. Even then, downtown is only there for the nightlife, not for general daytime errands.

To do the same set of errands I could walk to in Germany after a short bus ride, one will end up having to get in and out of the car four times and drive a few miles between the places rather than walking a few minutes between each stop. Throw some kids into the mix, it's even less fun. Make it over 100 degrees outside where your car turns into a blast furnace in ten minutes or less during each errand, and it becomes downright miserable.

If you're like me and can't drive, you get to enjoy the pleasure of dodging cars in the 100+ temperatures under blazing sunlight that obstructs both your vision and the drivers' vision around you while walking at least a quarter mile between stores (if you're lucky enough to find a strip center that has more than one business that you need to visit there). You also get to alarm those working in stores when you carry your shopping from your previous errand with you, since they will often assume you're shoplifting since you're bringing in a shopping bag with you. I totally get why people buy coffee at drive throughs. This place just isn't designed for people - it's designed for cars. Seriously, for most of us in the US, the notion of wondering what you'd say if you saw someone walking down the street is not something you'd literally consider. What you'd say seeing them in the grocery store, sure. But no one walks down the street here unless their car broke down.

Regarding the bold section: It is sometimes a challenge if you want to walk somewhere.

My library is near the historic area and within a nice 5 minute walk to the Episcopal church, which is open during the day. I've been trying to take my lunch time and walk over and have quiet time in the garden or church. Getting to and from has been the biggest challenge. Staff and patrons stop and ask if I need a ride. I reassured the library staff that I have my phone and will call if I need help. My nice "stress free walk" often turns into a social fest because surely I'm not purposely walking in a neighborhood where I don't live.

On the other end, my neighborhood had only one road in and is popular with fitness walkers from multiple neighborhoods. This is a common site and I just have to remember to watch for walkers on my way to work.

When I was a SAHM and only drove about 5,000 miles a year at least once a month I would see a car/truck have a near miss with a pedestrian ( the pedestrians always had the right of way)

Yes, pedestrians have the right away, but the person coming around the curve, toward me, on my side of road, wearing grey, in the fog, can be a challenge to see. Especially when I'm also focusing on not having my Kia Soul run down by one of the Hummers in the neighborhood.

DH and I live in the inner suburbs of Sydney's north shore. We're a relativist good area for transport like buses and to a lesser extent trains, and we don't have a car. We also live walking distance from a a shopping centre which basically has everything, including banks, doctors, dentist and a sizable department store.

We are getting to the stage where we'd like a car, as we're limited sometimes where we can go and sometimes public transport makes no sense on routes.

This was raised early in this thread - can you go through a drive through on a push bike?

There's a Starbucks on the A14 (big East-West dual carriageway (70mph speed limit) in England) that makes me really annoyed every time I pass it because the sign proudly announces "Drive To", not drive through. Essentially it's just saying "We have parking", of course you do, you're on the A14 no-one's coming to you without a car!

The drive throughs I've used have always been because I'm passing somewhere on the way home and want food to take out, why go in and queue when I can sit in my car with the radio on? The drive through near me doesn't quite seem to have grasped the fact that it's supposed to be quick and convenient because they end up taking your order, your money and delivering your order all from the same window, rather than ordering at one point, paying at the next collect at the last one.

I wish we had drive through Starbucks, although my consumption would increase at an alarming rate.

As far as town access goes, I live 20 minutes walk from the city center and both DH and I own cars. He uses his for work but I've worked within walking distance of our home the entire time we've lived there and generally worked places I couldn't park on site. I can hand on heart say a lot of the time if I could have parked at work I would have driven rather than walked.

So, here's something my state has that seems to surprise even the out-of-state but still from the US vistors. We've got drive thru liquor stores. That's right, they're small little liquor stores (if you go inside you can barely turn around without hitting something) with a little drive up window. And yes, anything available for sale inside is available for sale via the drive thru.

Drive thrus are popular where I live because of the heat in the summer. 120 is a normal occurrence during summer. Some places get so hot that the asphalt on the road starts to get soft and plyable. So being able to keep your car's AC running while you handle your errands makes us all very happy.

This was raised early in this thread - can you go through a drive through on a push bike?

Is a push bike = bicycle? If so, yes. Twenty years ago, I used to be a bank teller in the drive-up. (I don't know why it was called a drive up rather than drive through.) We have customers on bikes, motorcycles and on foot. The majority of customers were in cars. The drive-up was open earlier and later than the main bank. Dogs were also prohibited in the bank so we had a lot of people walking with dogs. We gave treats to the dogs and candy to the children.

We had a special area for walkers so that they didn't have to share a lane with cars. I don't think that is very common in the U.S. However, I worked in a pedestrian friendly neighborhood.

I would love a drive through liquor store, for a myriad of reasons, but the main one is that dragging your kids into a store full of shiny glass bottles is a complete nightmare. When my kids were still in the touch-everything-shiny phase, I had one time that it was a necessity (or near to one) to go into a liquor store. My kids had never been there before. I was having a party, and my husband had been sent out of town for his work on short notice.

My older kid was in a stage where she declared every single thing to be her favorite. We walked into the liquor store, and she declared, "This is my FAVORITE store!" in a loud voice. The cashier was still laughing when I went up to pay for my wine.

So that particular story is funny, but most of the time, until recently, I avoid buying wine at all unless I absolutely have to. I'll ask a friend to pick it up for me, or I'll go after my husband gets home from work. But it would be wonderful if there were a drive-through.